Officials with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) failed to catch undercover Homeland Security agents, who were posing as passengers, smuggling dangerous contraband through airport security checkpoints, according to a recent report by the Homeland Security Inspector General.
ABC News broke the story in a report indicating that TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, as the undercover Homeland Security’s “Red Team” members were able to smuggle potential weapons through checkpoints roughly 96 percent of the time.
In one instance cited in the aforementioned ABC News report, one of the members of “Red Team” set off an alarm at a magnetometer, however, the TSA screeners who proceeded to pat the undercover agent down failed to detect a fake explosive device which was taped to his back.
While the findings of the DHS inspector general’s probe into the administration’s security remain classified, the reported findings have revealed a system-wide security lapse at airports across the nation.
Fox News has confirmed that the investigation found TSA screeners to have failed 67 out of 70 tests.
The DHS noted in a written statement to ABC that Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, upon learning of the report’s findings, immediately directed the “TSA to implement a series of actions” in order to “address the issues raised in the report”.
Upon learning the initial findings of the Office of Inspector General’s report, Secretary Johnson immediately directed TSA to implement a series of actions, several of which are now in place, to address the issues raised in the report
The report on ABC noted that the investigation determined that the TSA has spent a total of $540 million on baggage screening equipment and another $11 million on training procedures, however, no substantial upgrades were made.
In other air travel related coverage here at Immortal News, Europe’s largest airline, Lufthansa, was hacked and their customer database breached.
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